Telltale’s Story Over?

Absolutely devastating news in the gaming world today; Telltale is reportedly shutting their doors. After laying off over 200 staff members, a skeleton crew of a mere 25 remain to continue working on Minecraft: Story Mode, out of contractual obligation to Netflix. As of right now, there is no certainty around The Walking Dead, or whether we will get to see the end of Clementine’s adventure, but I will not be holding my breath. 25 staff members just doesn’t seem like enough to finish out the three promised installments remaining. We know for a fact we won’t be seeing the second installment of Game of Thrones, or the highly anticipated Stranger Things themed game we were promised.

There is no definitive answer to why this happened, although the company has been dealing with obvious internal issues for some time; if you recall, Telltale let go of around 90 employees last November. Most are under the assumption the company grew too big for its britches and took on too many titles, with the CEO himself admitting they just did not see the financial return they needed for the work they put in. I have personally played and enjoyed many Telltale titles (I went through Game of Thrones no less than 10 times) and am incredibly sad to hear this news. Not only will we no longer see the imaginative story-lines that have come from this developer, but over 200 people are now suddenly out of a job and in desperate need of employment. It does lift my spirits to report that the gaming industry takes care of its own. The hashtag “TelltaleJobs” is currently trending on Twitter, as a means for past Telltale employees to find work at companies presently looking to scoop up this new flood of talent on the market.

From all of us here at Geeks + Gamers, we wish everyone caught up in this unfortunate turn of events the best of luck in their future endeavors. I have no doubt you will all find a new home for your outstanding level of talent.